A victory, without the manner. The French football team has qualified for the quarter finals of the Euro 2024 in Germany after beating the Belgians (1-0) this Monday. But the men of Didier Deschamps, who began his sixth final phase as coach, struggled to find the net for 90 minutes.
But in the 85th minute of a very close match, Belgian defender Jan Vertonghen deflected a strike from Randal Kolo Muani into his own goal. France will face the winner of the evening match between Portugal and Slovenia in the quarter. During Euro 2021, The Blues were eliminated by Switzerland in the round of 16.
Blues ineffective for a long time
Kolo Muani’s strike delivered the Blues who had been ineffective for a long time and still unable to score a single goal in the game in this competition, if not thanks to two own goals and a penalty. “We had quite a few chances, but unfortunately we didn’t really hit the target. We have to savour it, we can’t trivialise it, we’re in the quarter-finals and they’re going home.”, commented Didier Deschamps hotly. Kolo Muani returned at the hour mark to replace Marcus Thuram who, like the rest of the blue attack, showed little inspiration offensively.
Only his header (34th) at the near post, following a beautiful cross from Jules Koundé on the right side, came close to Koen Casteels’ post, before Aurélien Tchouaméni offers two heavy blows who did not find the framework. A third, at the start of the second period, was repelled by Casteels, while Kylian Mbappé, in one of his rare flashes on Monday, fired a shot that went a little too far above the opposing goal (53rd).
Belgians not inspired
Opposite, the Belgians were not much more inspired, but had the best opportunities. Maignan had to repel a free kick from Kevin de Bruyne (24th), a strike from Romelu Lukaku (70th) and another from De Bruyne (83rd), and Théo Hernandez made a perfect tackle in front of Yannick Carrasco. in its area (61st). As in 2018, at the World Cup in Russiathe Belgians come out with the smallest gap against France.
Relive France-Belgium
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